Else, drive it in manual mode and it will perform better. If u drive in "D" you will find in general it respond slower than a conventional autobox. My mrs asked me recently is our car SLOW becoz she say pickup is not as quick as the old autobox. kekeke. Drove home and I drive, she then said it does not change this quick when she drives. kakaka.

SMGII can be clunky and sluggish when taking it easy, comes alive when u go for it.

Digi, you are right, when the car is warming up, even k-car or taxi can overtake me easily~~~ But I don't understand why the rev lights will turn on again when i step hard on the gas padel after warm up.

COOLGUY wrote:Digi, you are right, when the car is warming up, even k-car or taxi can overtake me easily~~~ But I don't understand why the rev lights will turn on again when i step hard on the gas padel after warm up.

should be the shift indicator light telling you when the optimal change is.

From my readings on the internet, the major reason for the "chok" symptom on the E46 M3 is the weak low end torque. The car has a very power mid range and high end, but the low end is at a fraction compare to the mid-range.

So to correct this symptom, the most effective way is improve the low end torque. I've changed my cat and recently header to accomodate this. The sport cat alone would drastically correct this symptom, the SMG performs a very close to real auto car, given that you need proper throttle control. The only annoying thing left was it downshifts itself when going downhill, which I don't think you can do anything about it, its the same in auto cars anyway. The stepped header will further smoothen the shift as low end torque again is improved. The standard E46 M3 exhaust is very restrictive and I did not notice until the exhaust has been upgraded.

Just modding the exhaust system will improve so much. The SMG ECU, its not worth it. I've applied the ESS SMG program and I can hardly tell the difference, unless I am blasting the car and shifting at the high end all the time!